It is generally known to knit a circular warp knit tubular fabric on a circular warp knitting machine by feeding yarns to vertically reciprocated needles through yarn guides supported for clockwise and counterclockwise reciprocal movement above the needles In most machines of this type, the reciprocal movement is imparted to the yarn guides by a rack and pinion type of drive. This type of rack and pinion drive is noisy, particularly when operated at high speeds, and the speed at which this type of drive can be operated is limited. This type of rack and pinion drive arrangement is subject to rapid wear since the teeth of the rack and pinion undergo severe stress when the rack and pinion reverse directions at each end of the shogging movements imparted to the yarn guides.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,671 discloses a circular warp knitting machine for knitting cord-like tubular fabric and the yarn is fed to vertically reciprocated needles by guide arms which are provided with yarn feed guides in one end with the opposite end being drivingly attached to rotating disks so that the yarn feed ends of the guide arms are moved in orbital paths of travel around and above the vertically reciprocated needles. The drive disks are continuously rotated by means of timing belts and timing belt pulleys. However, the orbital path of travel of the yarn feed ends of the guide arms require a great deal of space in the area above the vertically reciprocated needles so that it is not practical to feed a large number of body or ground yarns to the needles, or to also feed inlay yarns to the vertically reciprocated needles in this type of circular warp knitting machine. The movement of the yarn feed ends of the guide arms in an orbital path of travel also tends to limit the speed at which the machine may be operated.